


Final Homecoming

by flashytonystark



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV), Game of Thrones RPF, Modern Westeros - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Army, Character Death, Death, Family, Gen, Heavy Angst, I'm Sorry, King's Landing, Kingsguard, Modern Era, Modern Westeros, No Incest, Noble Death, Protective Siblings, Sansa-centric, Siblings, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, This is not an incest fic, What Have I Done, What Was I Thinking?, Winterfell, just read this, please
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-06
Updated: 2017-01-06
Packaged: 2018-09-15 04:01:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9217943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flashytonystark/pseuds/flashytonystark
Summary: Robb was finally home.





	

When they were growing up, people would remark to Cat and Ned Stark that if they didn’t know any better, they would’ve sworn Sansa and Robb were inseparable twins. Separated by almost a solid four years in age, the eldest two Stark children did everything together, no matter the activity. 

They had always been uncannily close with one another, starting from the time before Sansa was even able to walk. When she was eleven months old, Sansa was crawling and pulling herself up on her own, clearly on the verge of walking one day soon. Cat and Ned had tried working with her, bribing her with bright toys held just out of reach in hopes that Sansa would take her first few steps. She'd stand on shaky legs and giggle at them, but she would never let go of the couch or coffee table and take a step... until the day Robb came bursting through the front door in a fit of rage.   
  
Sansa had been standing at the couch, her little legs bouncing as she watched whatever toddler-friendly cartoon that was playing on the television, when Robb rushed into the living room, mad at Theon for stealing his G.I. Joe action figure.

“Mum! Theon has my _toy_!” he wailed, stomping his foot in only a way Robb Stark could.

Even with Robb clearly in distress over his toy, Sansa squealed, her face lit up, and she took four unsteady steps toward her brother before falling down and promptly scooting across the floor to her brother who grabbed her hands to help her stand back on her feet. Cat and Ned were in complete shock, both hurrying to grab a camera to try and take pictures should Sansa try and walk again while Robb was in the room.

“Robb, let go of her hands and back up! Maybe she’ll do it again,” Cat said, taking a seat on the edge of the couch, camera now ready and in hand. Robb did as he was asked, took a few steps backward, and held out his hands to his sister.

Sansa looked at him, her little legs still wobbly from lack of support, but took three more steps before latching onto Robb’s outstretched hand. A camera flash went off, and when Cat later developed the pictures, she found that she had taken the picture at the perfect moment.   
  
It was against the rules to have sleepovers in each other’s rooms on a school night, but even at seven, Sansa was still terrified of storms and Robb knew that. At the first crack of thunder or spark of lightning, he’d quietly usher his little sister into his shared bedroom with Theon—whom he threatened if he ever told Cat—and helped her into bed with him. Sansa always felt better when she wasn’t alone during a storm and Robb didn’t really mind sharing his bed with his sister and their two dogs because really, all he wanted to do was protect her.   
  
When Sansa was twelve, she got sent to the principal's office for punching another boy in the face at recess. It was the only time she got into trouble. It was rather shocking to Ned and Cat when they received the phone call about Sansa’s behavior and when her parents questioned her as to why she did it, she simply replied, “he was talking bad about Robb and Jon. Nobody does that except _me_." She never told her parents _exactly_ what the boy had said, but it was bad, she had assured them. 

Sansa was Salsa, Robb was Roberto. She was Skyscraper, he was Shrimp. He helped teach her how to drive in the snow and she helped teach him how to walk in heels and properly apply mascara. As children, they played House and School, tag and hopscotch. Robb helped Sansa do her hair for her prom and Sansa helped Robb match his tie to Margaery's dress.   
  
They covered for each other, even when it meant possible groundings or loss of car privileges. They had coffee together, still watched old Disney movies in blanket forts, and went shopping almost every weekend. Robb knew things about Sansa that even their mother didn't know, and Sansa knew the same about Robb. He even threatened to run over Joffrey Baratheon with his car if he ever heard the boy speak to Sansa in such a disrespectful way again after a night of heated arguing between the couple. Robb and Sansa had an uncanny understanding of each other that was near impossible to figure out.  
  
That's why today was so hard. That's why Sansa was standing barefoot on the front porch, sobbing, as an unnaturally warm breeze blew past her.

 

_It shouldn’t be so nice and warm_ , she thought. _Not on a day like today._

 

That's why she hated her parents, especially her father. That's why she had been dreading today all week long.   
  
Tension in the Stark household had reached an all-time high three months ago. In fact, it was so bad, Robb finally told his father he was leaving Winterfell to go to King's Landing and join the Kingsguard. Sansa had laughed at her brother’s announcement that night at dinner, but she quickly realized he was being serious when no one else was laughing and Cat’s expression was one of horror.  
  
Sansa spent the following two weeks begging and pleading with Robb not to go through with it, claiming that she, Theon, and Jon would be a wreck without him there. Arya, Bran, and Rickon would miss him too. But no matter what she said or did, Robb wouldn't budge. He was going.   
  
He wanted to go into modeling, not the Kingsguard. They had talked about it so often—how Robb would graduate and get into the business, how Sansa would join him a few years later as she worked on a dual degree in fashion and publishing. Siblings, best friends, taking over the fashion industry together. It was their dream, their plan... until it wasn't.   
  
Ned Stark loved his children and supported them in their _honorable_ and _respectable_ decisions. His eldest son leaving to pursue a career in modeling and fashion was neither honorable or respectable; being in the Kingsguard or taking over the family business was honorable and respectable. He had never been too keen on his eldest daughter leaving Winterfell to go to King’s Landing for such a career either, yet it hadn’t been nearly the issue it was with Robb.    
  
Ned had wanted to join the Kingsguard himself when he was Robb's age, but had fallen in love too hard and too fast with Catelyn Tully. Ned's want and need to live vicariously through his son paired with his obsession about honor, duty, and respect was what had pushed Robb to make the decision he did. The one Sansa hated him for.   
  
Two months, one week, and four days ago, Robb Stark had stood on this very porch with Sansa, holding her in a bone-crushing hug as she begged and pleaded with him one final time not to go.   
  
"Sans, it's not forever. I'll eventually be able to visit, and you can come down too! You and Joffrey make the trip often enough. You won't even realize that I'm gone or that you even miss me." He tried to give her the best smile he could, one that said he wasn’t afraid of going and that he was excited to be leaving, but his smile fell short of showing _any_ of that. Robb Stark was _terrified_ of going. He was going to miss his family, his friends, Winterfell in general. But he had to do it, his father had made sure of that.  
  
His words and half-smile did little to ease Sansa's mind, but before he left, she hugged him back just as tight and told him he better write to her while he was away at training.   
  
"I promise, Skyscraper."  
  
"I'm holding you to it, Shrimp."  
  
Sansa had wiped her nose with the back of her hand as she watched Robb pull out of the driveway, wishing desperately that her big brother wasn't leaving and wasn't going to miss her graduate or her senior prom. He was going to King’s Landing finally, yes, but not for what they had planned. 

* * *

Robb wasn't supposed to visit for another four weeks and three days, but he was coming home early. 

  
Sansa was the one who opened the door three days ago to find two men dressed in the official Kingsguard uniforms, their faces solemn and tense. She knew that look, she had seen it a hundred times in movies and had read it about it in passages of her favorite books. A sense of what she could only assume was dread and fear bubbled up inside her, and when the bigger of the two men spoke, his voice seemed distant and far away.  
  
"Miss. Stark? Are your parents home? We have a matter that needs to be discussed immediately."  
  
Everything had clicked. That’s when she started to scream.   
  
After putting the youngest two Stark siblings to bed with a quick, detail-lacking explanation as to what happened, Ned and Cat sat Sansa, Jon, Theon, and Arya down that night and explained what had happened. The new recruits were going through a combat training simulation when a senior member of the Guard had went rogue after what the Kingsguard officials were saying was some sort of psychotic break brought on by severe lack of sleep and PTSD. The senior member came out of the barracks pointing his gun at anyone and anything that moved. Robb had pushed a fellow trainee out of the way when he was hit. 

It was quick and painless, her parents had said, as if that was supposed to fix everything and dull the pain. It only made Sansa more angry. Through her tears, Cat explained to them the process of Robb's body returning to Winterfell. He'd be honored properly at his final homecoming, the Kingsguard members assured her. Sansa had gotten up and walked out of the kitchen at that moment, too tired to listen to any more discussion of how her brother would be returning, only to be placed in the ground.   
  
As Sansa stood barefoot on the front porch with her family, sobbing, she saw the procession of cars coming down their street at an achingly slow pace. Her jaw clenched and she looked down at her feet.   
  
Maybe, just maybe, if she didn't look up at the cars, they'd keep driving by. Maybe Robb would come home, laughing and smiling and talking about how much he missed everyone. He’d tell her all about his adventures in the Guard and how terrible the food was. They’d sneak off to the back yard together and climb up into the tree-house they once used when they were little and Sansa would fill him in on everything that he’d missed while he was away.

Maybe, just maybe, if the cars didn’t stop, all of that would come true. She squeezed her eyes shut, hoped for the best, and opened them again as she exhaled shakily.   
  
She was still staring at her feet when she heard the cars slow and come to a stop on the gravel, followed by the slam of heavy doors. She looked up, swallowed thickly, and turned around, disappearing back into the house.   
  
Robb was finally home.

**Author's Note:**

> Ah, I forgot that I had written this. A modern twist on Robb's death where Ned lived, but was still a factor that led to that eventual fate. 
> 
> I do love writing Sansa & Robb ficlets because I like to think that these two would be the best of friends in a canon or modern setting. It just seems like _the_ thing. 
> 
> Happy reading! Xx


End file.
